9/5/15

Dharma Talk, August 24, 2015: Lin Chi, pt. 1

Our Dharma teacher, Gilbert Gutierrez will be
conducting a 7-day retreat at DDRC in Pine Bush, NY right after Thanksgiving
from November 28, 2015 to December 5, 2015. Registration is now open till Nov
24. He hopes for some participation from this local
group and also those who are reading this by way of the Internet. This is going
to be a very good opportunity to practice longer sitting meditation. For more
info, visit: http://dharmadrumretreat.org/calendar.php#roots

Today is
August 24, 2015 our regular Monday night class. Good evening to all of you here
and hello to those who are listening by way of the internet. Tonight's class is
a class that is [let's say] classical Zen
Teachings from a classical master, Master Lin-Chi. He was from the late
1200 and 1300. Master Lin-Chi is probably one of the greatest Chan Masters that
we read about. I don't want go into the historical aspects of him tonight
because what he has to say is definitely more important in terms of that. That's
why want to get right into his instruction. Essentially this kind of his
instruction is what you might call Beginners of the Way and his instruction
appears, and is very simple, but is also extremely and deeply profound. So it
starts:

The Master instructed the group, saying: "Those who
study the Dharma of the buddhas these days should approach it with a true and
proper understanding. If you approach it with a true and proper understanding,
you won't be affected by considerations of birth and death, you'll be free to
go or stay as you please.

When he's
talking about the true and proper understanding, what’s another word for that
that I use quite regularly?

Student:
Right View.

Gilbert:
Right View. So he’s talking about the Right View and he’s saying that if you
want to study the Dharma that you should approach it with the true and proper
understanding - this idea of Right View. What is this Right View that he's
referring to, anybody?

Student:
How mind works.

Gilbert:
How mind works. Pretty much that’s it - how mind works. If we don't know how
mind works, we can sit on a cushion to meditate, we can sit and not get up for
a week and we still will not have any kind of illumination there. But if we
understand how mind works, then we understand clearly what we’re doing when
we're sitting on the cushion. And how does mind work? We get to the next part.

Student: Pratityasamutpada.

Gilbert:
Yes, Pratityasamutpada - causes and
conditions never fail. When we understand this… now in the very first sentence that
Lin-Chi said is all you need to know. If you get it there, you don’t have to
read any further. But we’re too slow, too dim-witted so we need to read further.
But if you get it there, he said everything in that very first sentence and if
you see it, “if you approach it with the true and proper understanding, you will
not be affected by the considerations of birth and death.”

Many
Masters begin by saying “If you really want to know Chan, you have to resolve
the great matter of birth and death” and seeing things in a very clear way, see
how that is and seeing this birth and death. It's an interesting aspect because
it's not saying, “Okay, I want to know how I was born and about dying,” it's
about saying that in fact there is no birth or death. There's no increase or
decrease; mind is just mind and you resolve it in this way. So it takes away
the fear that one has in terms of how we approach this world. What is the fear?
It’s our fear of whatever we cling to: our children, our station in life, our
money, our car, whatever relationships that we have. They can be taken away
from us; we used to be number one, now we’re not. When you look at the stock
market today, I'm sure Vic, our resident stockbroker could tell you quite a bit
about what kind of ride he took today and what ride he might take tomorrow. And
that's just the way it is; everything changing, constantly moving, never the
same. But we have this idea that “we want” and the most important thing we want
to remain the same is the “self” and we don't see things in the correct way.
And as a result to us, there's this great matter of birth and death. So he
continues:

You don't have to strive for
benefits, benefits will come of themselves.”

I think
this is kind of a very important thing. Not so much maybe in our group and some
other groups and some other people who really want to try to become enlightened
and are striving for these benefits. They’re trying to get somewhere with the
practice. And they’re like a meat grinder and they’re trying to force their
hand in through the top spout and turning the crank with the other and hoping
something different comes out. But in the end they still get baloney - they
still don't get it. They’re striving for these benefits from something to
appease the corporal body and it's not going to work that way. Or they’re
trying to appease some spiritual body, or soul, or ego, or life in being, or a
personality. But it doesn't work that way.

So if one
practices and practices clearly, the mind is like a self-cleaning oven. It will
clean itself and cleaning itself, the benefits will be there. What are the
benefits? You're not afraid of dying. What are the benefits? Your health is
better. What are the benefits? Your life is better and the people around you
don't hate you. And that's not bad. Some of you are laughing but I mean there
are people that really make a mess out of life and the people around them hate them
because they're so angry all the time, or impatient, or discriminating in their
way. But all these benefits, they come naturally. We don't have to do that; we
don't have to weigh them or measure them. They come natural.

"Followers of the Way, the outstanding teachers from
times past have all had ways of drawing people out. What I want myself to
impress on you is that you mustn't be led astray by others. If you want to use
this thing, then use it and have no doubts or hesitations!

In this
way when you practice, you want to practice and you accept the practice. You
understand, “Okay, I have faith in this practice. I have faith in my teachers.
I have faith in what I'm reading - that this will be of benefit to me.” But if
you start sitting there and you just go, “You know, I've been sitting here for
10 minutes and I am not enlightened yet. I don't know if this is going to work
or not,” then you don't have faith.

One story
that I often tell is a student going to Master Sheng Yen and telling him that
he just met this great master and that he is going to study with that master. And
Master Sheng Yen said, “Go ahead and study with him.”

But he
also said, “Shifu, you ought to go with me and study with him too.”

He didn't
see the wonder and the beauty of what Master Sheng Yen was teaching. He was
looking and being led astray by others. But then a few years later he came back.
And he says, “Why did you come back? What happened to your master?”

“Well,
you know I kind of like what you say better.”

So he was
kind of like a prodigal son coming back but the idea is that wherever we land, whatever
we do, we follow it. We look into it and say “Is this for me or not for me?” And
if it's for you, then you do it. And you don't do it with a half-measure; you
take the full measure and practice with your full heart. And if you practice in
this way, you get the benefits of a full heart. If you only practice with half-a-heart
or quarter-heart, (understand that I'm not using the posterior here), you get
that kind of a benefit from it. So it's very very important that we practice
diligently. That’s why it says “Don't have doubts; don't have hesitations”
about it; just keep going forward with this.

"When students today fail to make progress, where's
the fault?

He was
saying what happens if the students don't have any progress? Keep in mind, this
is almost 1000 years ago where they didn't have the Internet, they didn’t have
TV, they didn’t have cable, they even have very few books at that point so they
didn’t have a whole lot of distractions. I mean it was either like when it got
dark, you know you mended something, or you went to sleep, or you could
meditate. But here, we have so many distractions in terms of things and makes
it difficult for us. He says where is the fault in the students, why can't they
do that? Here we can point it and say that there are so many different things
that could happen. When my son was young, if I have him turn off his game machine
and stuff, within 5 minutes he’d say, “Dad, I'm bored.” And back then you know, woe is you if you were
born after 5 minutes because there's nothing else to do over there except watch
the stars. Back to Master Lin-Chi:

The fault lies in the fact that they don't have faith in
themselves! If you don't have faith in yourself, then you'll be forever in a
hurry trying to keep up with everything around you, you'll be twisted and turned
by whatever environment you're in and you can never move freely.

Here
Lin-Chi is telling them that you need to have the faith. The faith first this
is in yourself. When Master Sheng Yen was coming to the United States, his
master asked him, “I heard you’re going to United States. What are you going
over there to do?”

And he
said, “Well, I’m going over there to teach them the Dharma.”

And his
master looked at him and said, “You're going to teach the Dharma?”

And he
understood the correction of the master and said, “Actually, I'm not really
going to teach them. I'm just going to fool them about the Dharma so that they
can progress.” And then he said, “But don't worry master, I will not let you
down.”

And the
master said to him, “Why should I worry about you letting me down? Don't you
let yourself down.”

And so
the idea here is when we say “don't let yourself down,” it's very important
because he's not talking to the one known as Sheng Yen. He’s talking to the
mind itself. He's essentially talking to himself and saying, “Don't let the
self-nature of mind down. This is what’s more important; you have to have faith.
Keep your faith; you're going to another country. There is going to be all
sorts of stuff: movie stars, and swimming pools, and all sorts of other things
that are there and you have to watch out what you do. Throughout my time, I’ve
met many Lamas, monks and others that when they reach our shores, they had lost
their way when they got here. They got lured by money, or fame, or whatever,
and really went off the path. Master Sheng Yen didn't do that. He maintained
his ability to have faith in what he was practicing. And that's what you need
to do; you need to have this faith in the practice and not be lured by that.

Student:
What is faith?

Gilbert:
Faith is a belief that what you're doing is correct; that it's beneficial; that
it will lead to a positive outcome. You have to have that kind of a belief
there. The faith is not necessarily in a supreme being although Christians
might have that faith and that will direct them properly in the way that they
believe. But in our belief system, we have to have faith - what we call “faith in mind.” When we have faith in
ourselves, that means faith in our self-nature - the self-nature of mind; that
we want to keep working on trying to look into that which [at this moment]
maybe we don't understand. But we have well-knowing advisers to say that this
is there - this hidden gem of our self-nature.

So we
have to have the faith that we can do it and that's very very important. Without
that faith, then one will not have the interest to practice or the energy [the Virya] to practice. They will quickly
think of something else or some reason why not to practice and they will not
continue in a straightforward way. When you have faith, you have the faith to keep
moving on. It's as if one is in a blinding snowstorm but they understand that
they can make it through. They may not be able to see where they're going but
they know the direction. They do know that direction and that if they keep
moving forward they will reach their home. You have the faith that if you put
one foot in front of the other and in front of the other towards that goal, you
will accomplish this. We have to have that belief even though we cannot see the
end goal or we cannot see our home, we know our home is in this direction. That
has to be there because that's a very powerful component because essentially
that keeps you moving.

He says
“if you don't have faith in yourself, you'll be forever in a hurry trying to
keep up with everything around you.” This means that everything will move too
fast for you. The one thing about Chan is “everything
will move slower; a lot slower.” When I say it moves a lot slower is
because when one is in the present moment, one is aware of what is arising in
the present moment. So it would be like let's say if someone was surfing and they
look out and they see a wave beginning to form way out there and they begin to
see it’s getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It's not in the present moment
but in the present moment is this wave that is going to come. It hasn't come
yet but the present moment is that moment that the wave is coming and one is
preparing and preparing and preparing. And finally the wave is there and one times
himself to be able to catch the wave.

Likewise,
things are happening around you: the mind-waves of the people around you, the
mind- waves of the causes and conditions that are around you. You begin to see
those arising and you begin to anticipate what you should do in the aftermath
after the wave has crashed. You're in the present moment but you're viewing all
of these and so you're not being turned by it. If you don't do this, and if you
are out there [let’s say] and you're surfing and you're going to catch a wave
but you're just standing up there and you’re oblivious to the oncoming wave,
all it’ll do is catch you and crash on you, spin you around in whatever
direction that it will and you will make a mess of it, or make a mess of you. But
when you are in harmony with it, then you can manage to catch that wave and
ride it and you move along smoothly through the environment.

And
that's what we do. We see what is happening but we do not rush to confront it and
to oppose it, but we use our best means to be able to harmonize with whatever's
arising in mind. It can be in our environment here, or it can be a thought that
arises in mind or a thought that comes in of some kind of an interest that's
there. And all of a sudden our mind turns towards that and then it's oblivious
to everything else. Oblivious to your method, you're being turned by these
thoughts.

Master
Sheng Yen said “Do not be turned by the
environment; you turn the environment.” This is kind of a little bit of a
response back to Stan. You're talking about mantras and the benefit of mantras.
Part of the benefit of mantras is the that you're actually turning the
environment rather than letting the environment turn you when you're inundated
with problems or whatever - fears, and the mantra enables you to control and
reel it all in and now you control the environment. This is the same kind of way
that we use it. We have to have the faith to do that and if we don't have it,
what happens is that we’re just turned this way and turned that way. And he
said:

But if you can just stop this mind that goes rushing
around moment by moment looking for something, then you'll be no different from
the patriarchs and buddhas.

This mind
is always looking for something. Discriminating, it's not satisfied with where
it’s at; it is not satisfied to just sit in a chair and to listen to the Dharma.
It's always looking for something. And probably some of you have already left
this room at one time or another. Your mind saw something else for a while and
you come back. But the mind is always trying to seek something, attach to
something. We’re unable to understand that because we don't know how mind works.
We don't know that the mind, because of habitual energy, will be attracted to
certain things that take us off the path. It’s as if some young boy that should
be going to school is instead gets attracted to the circus. But that’s a different
story I think. (Laughs…) But in any case, that is what happens; all of a sudden
we get pulled away to a different place.

If you don't
have this idea of attachment - looking for something, the mind that desires
continuation, the mind will be settled. It will be free and in that moment,
that mind will not be different than the patriarchs or the buddhas. They're
referring to the patriarchs as the Six Patriarchs from the beginning of Chinese
Buddhism and the Buddha's. And they’re saying that if you practice in this way,
you will have no inflows or outflows and that everything is in a state of
equanimity. So this is important because when we are craving and were looking
for something, that looking and craving create the problem. Remember I gave you
two Sanskrit words; they are bonus points here for attaching to something and
not attaching. Does anybody remember what those Sanskrit words are, anybody?

Student: Kusala and Akusala.

Gilbert:
Good, Akusala and Kusala. Akusala is when we attach to something and
that is actually what we think as an “unwholesome mind.” When we don't attach to something,
something arises in the mind and we just let it go, then that is Kusala; it's a wholesome mind. So
all we have to do is just have the idea of understanding “Cut the thought off;
cut the thought off!” When we're meditating, the harm is not in the thoughts arising because they are naturally
arising in the mind [naturally through our habits]. But the harm is not seeing
that the thought has arisen or noticing it too late. By that point, it’s
already taken you off.

And once
it’s taken you off, then you have to come back again. What you're doing is
you're bringing your mind to a point
where it's not attaching and not holding on or clinging to anything. It's
in the present moment; just this moment, and in this moment, there's no
clinging. It may see things that are going to happen but it doesn't put the mind
into that. It just understands that these things are coming. It’s as if there's
an oncoming car in your lane, it sees it and is able to react to it. But if
there's no oncoming car, it doesn't see an incoming car or generate that. It is
clear about what it is doing. This is important in terms of our practice and Master
Lin-Chi is telling you all the ways in which to practice and how to settle the
mind. He's only gone now to two paragraphs and he’s already told you a lot. By
the way if you went to Lin-Chi and you asked him if he could repeat that, he’d
probably hit you about 30 times or shout at you. And he says:

Do you want to get to know the patriarchs and buddhas?
They're none other than you, the people standing in front of me listening to
this lecture on the Dharma!"Students don't have enough faith in
themselves, and so they rush around looking for something outside themselves.
But even if they get something, all it will be is words and phrases, pretty
appearances. They'll never get at the living thought of the patriarchs!

And here
he's kind of poking at the intellectuals and poking at perhaps the Huayen School
and Tientai School for using these wonderful phrases that they use and their kind
of algebraic formulas to break down emptiness, and mind, and no-mind, and
apparent mind or apparent truth, and actual truth or absolute truth, and using
all these fancy terms. These are all fancy terms and you can sit there and talk
about them just like [I guess] the Cardinals would debate in Rome in the old
days of how many angels could balance on a point of the pin. But in the end it
doesn't get you there. You've got to walk
it yourself. You can’t use somebody else's words. Those words are powerful;
they’re useful but in the end you have to have faith in yourself. And you’ve
got to take that and generate it into the power of the practice.

“But even if they get something, all
it will be is words, phrases, and pretty appearances. They'll never get at the
living thought of the patriarchs!Again, what
he’s saying is that in this point, there is a way of entering through the practice or entering through principle as
Bodhidharma had set. But entering through the principle requires one to
penetrate deeply into the writings, into the teachings, and contemplate. It
does not come from cogitation or from those words, but in actual contemplation
of what one studies. If one just simply cogitates and thinks about it, you will
not get there. You have to make it your own. You have to realize what is being
said. Here, you have to feel as if Lin-Chi is talking to you, imploring you to
do this. That's why it’s so important here that he's teaching these and saying “Hey
look, what's happening?” It is the same thing I do to you week after week and
here is this great master that's doing it and telling you these things.

"Make no mistake, you followers of Ch'an. If you
don't find it in this life, then for a thousand kalpas you'll be born
again and again in the three-fold world, you'll be lured off by what you think
are favorable environments and be born in the belly of a donkey or a cow!

Pretty
scary stuff! Let’s break that down because he said a lot right here; “Don't
make this mistake. If you don't find it in this lifetime, it may be a long time
before you come back into the human realm.” We have what's called Cycle of Samsara
and there are six stages: from God, to a demigod, to human, to animal realm,
ghost realm, and hell realm. And it may be a while back before you get here. And
maybe the next time around, you're not going to come back as a human because you
may find yourself in the belly of a donkey or cow.

Now how
does that happen? What happens is after one dies, there is a time which is
called Bardo
period. Anybody here heard of the Bardo period before? Raise your
hands. Few of you; some of you never heard it? Okay, Bardo is after one dies,
and although we don't believe in the transmigration of souls, we do believe in
the continuation of karma. And so whatever karmic forces that were put together
that were considered a skandha or heaps
that you interpreted to be your life in being, continues on. Not necessarily as
“you” but the force. You could say it would be like a force in a current of
water. The current continues to be in that water and will continue in that way.

So during
the Bardo period, there are different possibilities that arise as to where
someone can go. And I'm making this very quick okay, so don't hold me or hopefully
no one would write something sketchy (?)because it’s very oversimplified. But in any case, there are different
forms of lights that come and they are introduced to the person. Those lights
are not comfortable; some maybe initially too bright and so the person is
bothered by the light and so they turn away from it. Until they find a light
and resonance that is to their liking and they will be attracted to it. Once
they are attracted to it, they will join with that light and that’s the new
life. And that life may be in the belly of a donkey or a cow but one feels
comfortable there.

So he's
imploring you to get it this time. Work hard to make the best out of it while
you're here and don't stop. Now when he talks about 1,000 kalpas, a kalpais just a really really long time. There's different ways to explain it. Probably
one of the easiest ways to explain it is that a bird flying by a mountain and
every time it flies by, its wing touches the tip of the mountain until the
mountain is eroded. That would be a kalpa - an incalculable amount of time. Now
he's talking about a thousand kalpas and trying to implore upon you that it may
be a very very long time before you have an opportunity to listen to the Dharma
again so don't mess it up. Sometimes they'll say that the possibly of listening
to the Dharma is a wood board with a hole cut out that's floating in the ocean
and a turtle that [every hundred years] comes to the surface and the possibility
of the turtle putting their head through the circle in the board is the chances
that one has.

But the
point here that he's making is that the time is precious. It's very very
precious and a very great opportunity to practice and to resolve this issue of birth
and death. Those of you, if you’re a Christian, all the more so for you to
practice because you would not be in the Samsaric realm. You either have one
chance - black or red, which one is it going to be? So you see [you know], you
have to get it right the first time. For Christians, it’s even harder for them
to practice.

"Followers of the Way, as I look
at it, we're no different from Shakyamuni. In all our various activities each
day, is there anything we lack?

Very
interesting, Shifu has a saying and it’s one that shames me almost every day.
He said, “Take only what you need.”
Very simple - take only what you need. And it's hard because try it out on a
platter of cookies (Laughs…) and then you’ll begin to understand what it is; this
idea just taking only what you need.

The wonderful light of the six faculties has never for a
moment ceased to shine.

What are
the six faculties, anybody knows?

Student: Sight,
sound, taste, smell, touch.

Gilbert:
And then what's the other one? Mind. Five of the six faculties are material and
the sixth one is non-material, which is mind, or you could say it is actually
the consciousness. So he's talking about this he says “the wonderful light of
the six faculties has never for a moment ceased to shine.” What he’s saying is
that the light that passes through is not other than our self-nature of mind. Now
the six faculties, in and of themselves, are fundamentally empty and they
operate in a fundamentally empty way.

But the
idea here is that those faculties are what one master said; “they enable the
mind to contemplate;” not think but contemplate. Contemplation is different
than thinking. So if I say to you “Alright, think of a number between one and ten.”
What you produce would be a number that you thought of. But if I said to you “there
is a number between one and ten;” contemplate that. It's different and when we
see things, we see them as they are; we’re clear about it. Whatever it is, we’re
clear. This is contemplation. Cogitation slows the whole process up because we
start thinking about things. But the awareness of the mind itself, via the six
faculties, enables it to function.

Now that
sixth faculty is this consciousness that cannot be considered to be mind itself.
It's just consciousness; it's transitory. Whatever comes in through the other
five senses, it's processing. Whatever comes in through the five senses and
storage memory, it processes but it doesn't hold to one thought. Mind, when it functions
properly, hold to one thought; they say “one thought for 10,000 years.” What is that thought? Whatever one is doing in
that moment, we’re clear about it. When we use our method, we have one thought
- the one thought is the method.

It's equated
to like a bullfrog that’s sitting on a Lily pad. When the bullfrog is sitting
on that Lily pad, that Lily pad is that one thought. It covers the thought and that
thought is rendered irrelevant to anything else that the bullfrog sees in the
pond. But it has no desire to jump from one Lily pad to another, to another, to
another. It is just simply content to rest there. This is how mind works. It
only jumps when there's a necessity of function to perform should it jump from
one point to another. But when it jumps on the other thought, it just jumps and
covers that thought and holds that thought until it jumps to the next one. There's
no desire of the continuation of the mind.

If one
functions in this way, it makes life a lot easier. Because if you're there and
you're eating your lemon-filled donut and you're looking at the box thinking “I
should have had that raspberry one.” That's the mind that desires continuation [that’s
grasping] instead of being just happy “Okay I got this one right here. I got
this; why do I need the other one?” Whatever it is; they could be [instead of
the jelly donut], a purse, a car, a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, whatever it
is; a dog “I should have gotten a better dog,” whatever it is. I mean it’s just
this mind that never can be satiated. These Six Faculties are called Indriya. And
it says:

If you could just look at it this way, then you'd be the
kind of person who has nothing to do for the rest of his life.

Do youremember
the Chan poem – “Have you heard the man of the Tao who has nothing to do?”
Nothing to do; like now I'm so busy doing nothing. Absolutely nothing and this
is about nothing and it's easy in this way. It's easy to speak. I have nothing
to do so everything comes out naturally.

"Fellow believers, 'There is no safety in the
threefold world; it is like a burning house.' This is no place for you to
linger long!

Anybody
know what the threefold world is, anybody know what the threefold world is?

Student:
Realm of desire, realm of form, and the formless world.

Gilbert:
Realm of desire, realm of form, and the formless world. All these are still Samsaric
and the realm of desire is kind of where we’re at because we’re always “I want
this; I want to, want to, want to, want to” so we’re that way. In the realm of
form, it's a little bit less of desire and more at attaching to the idea of the
form. And the no-form world does not have any form at all but yet there is
still attachment to self. So he’s saying that if you enter into these realms,
it's like a burning house because they're not permanent. Even if you're some
God up in the very elevated heaven, there still will be an end to you so it's a
burning house.

There was
a story of the Buddha and his cousin, Sundarananda and he wanted Sundarananda
to practice with him. But Sundarananda had a very high station in life. He had
royalty, he has a very very beautiful wife, and everything he needed he had.
But he was still devoted to the Buddha so he would go and offer wonderful food to
the Buddha and he would set the bowl down before the Buddha. But one time the
Buddha tricked him because every time he went to the put the bowl down to the
Buddha, the Buddha would move back and so he couldn't put the bowl down because
he was already further away so how could he put the bowl down here when the
Buddha is further back there. So he kept tricking him and tricking him until he
finally got him out to the Jeta grove where he taught. And when he taught him
there, Sundarananda was quite surprised at how he got where he got.

So then
the Buddha said, “I have something to show you.”

And he
says, “Really?”

“You know
you really should leave home; you should practice.”

“But why
should I leave home? I have everything I need. I don't need anything. You
cannot offer me anything.”

The
Buddha said, “I will show you some place.” So through the power of his mind, he
took him to heaven. And he's there and sees a man there and he’s being attended
by these beautiful women that are all attending him and giving him whatever he
needs.

And he
says, “Who is that gentlemen there?”

The
Buddha says, “That's you!”

“What? These
women are even more beautiful than my wife!”

“Yes, that's
you after you die,” the Buddha added.

“Really?
Wow, that's amazing!”

And then
he said, “Yes, that’s amazing but I have another place to show you.” So he took
him down to another place; very dark and steamy (so you have an idea where he
was at). And there was this big burning cauldron there and there was an
attendant there that was stirring the pot.

So he
asked the attendant there what the pot was for and he said “Oh, that’s for Sundarananda.
We’re waiting for him to finish his life in heaven and he’ll come down here
afterwards.”

So it
really frightened him to say “Well, wait a second. Everything is transient and
things go up-and-down. Even if someone is in heaven, they can fall all the way
down to here. I know I need to understand this world better; I need to practice
more.” So he began to practice with the Buddha.

These
again are stories but what they represent is the idea of the immediacy of
practicing now and the benefits one can get from practicing now rather than
waiting until later. Sometimes you know we don't understand that part. And you
guys have the benefit because I will break this down to two classes so I can
tell you more stories.

The last
story I’ll tell you about that tonight is Master Sheng Yen had this one man that
came to him and the man said, “Shifu, Shifu (Shifu means Master), I've got bad
news. I have cancer and it's pretty bad and I want to know what I should do.”

And Master
Sheng Yen said, “Well, [you know] if you have cancer then you should prepare
yourself and you should study the Dharma harder, and it wouldn't be bad for you
to become a vegetarian. If you become a vegetarian it might help your body.”

So months
later, the man comes back looking a lot better. He goes, “Shifu, I have
wonderful news; you know you cured me!”

Shifu
says, “I cured you?”

He says,
“Yes, you cured me. I did what you told me to do. I stopped eating meat and I've
always practiced. I don't have cancer anymore!”

And he
says, “That’s good news for you but I didn't do anything for you.”

And he
says, “No, you cured me!” And he said, “But I have one favor to ask.

I know that you told me to
be a vegetarian but can you please, can I be released from that promise? And I
promise in the next lifetime I’ll be a vegetarian.”

Shifu
said, “I had nothing to do with this. Whatever promise you make is your promise.
I cannot release you from anything but you have to consider the consequences of
what you're doing.”

And so
the man was going “No, please; you have to release me!”

“But I
can't release you.”

So later
on in the afternoon, his whole family showed up. And they're all in front of Master
Sheng Yen with their palms joined going “Shifu, Shifu, please release him from his
vow so he can eat meat again in this lifetime.”

And it's
like a crazy thing because we don't see the consequences of what was happening.
Did Master Sheng Yen heal him? No, he didn't heal him; he just put into motion
certain factors that were beneficial for this person. But I think that anyone
could see that if he started to eat meat again in this lifetime, that there would
probably be a greater likelihood that the cancer would come back because
there's an affinity between those things. Master Sheng Yen was just pointing
that out through his wisdom but he cannot release the person from that. And if
he releases him and he eats meat and gets cancer, he’ll comeback and blame it
on Shifu.

But the
point is that we take responsibility for
what we do in this life. We see very clearly what we do and we understand
those things and we have the faith that if we do things in a certain way, they
will be beneficial to us, and more importantly, to the people around us. And so
it's very important for us to keep our vows. It’s very important for us to
practice in a way that leads others to the practice as well. This is what he's
talking about here saying “it's like a burning house.” It is a burning house;
you only have a finite amount of breaths to take and so you have to be aware of
that.

But
rather than you just running out of the building, wouldn’t it be better for you
to say “hey, go knock on all the doors and open the doors and let the people go
out” and give them an opportunity to escape the burning building? Although we
don't go and knock on people's doors, we certainly [by our example and in our
lives] serve as a proof of the benefits of the practice of Chan.

The deadly demon of impermanence will be on you in an
instant, regardless of whether you're rich or poor, old or young.

And it is
in this way; rich, old, poor, or young. Whether you're rich [you know], you
can't buy your way into enlightenment. Or if you're poor, if you're old, or if
you're young, the moments are fleeting. I once had a very wonderful student, an
incredibly good practitioner and he’s just getting better and better, and his
life was taken very very quickly in a motorcycle accident. His potentiality of
practice was great but this is a fleeting world. There's no guarantee that we’re
going to make it into our 80s. We think that sometimes, some people might say “Well,
I may even settle for the 70s.”

But the
idea is that we don't know how many breaths we have and it can turn around very
very quickly on us. So it's better for us to practice now. Those of you who are
young, this is a great opportunity. Those who are old, you have to realize “your
heads are flame” so you really need to begin to get more serious about these
kinds of things. Not trying to scare you but the idea is those things are
reality.

"If you want to be no different from the patriarchs
and buddhas, then never look for something outside yourselves. The clean pure light
in a moment of your mind--that is the Essence-body of the Buddha lodged in you.
The undifferentiated light in a moment of your mind~that is the Bliss-body of
the Buddha lodged in you. The undiscriminating light in a moment of your
mind--that is the Transformation-body of the Buddha lodged in you. These three
types of bodies are you, the person who stands before me now listening to this
lecture on the Dharma! And simply because you do not rush around seeking
anything outside yourselves, you can command these fine faculties.

These are
called the Trikaya, Dhammakaya,
Sambokaya, and the Nirmanakaya. I am
going to stop there because that could take quite a bit for me to talk about in
terms of this so we will finish this up next week. Is there any questions? Okay,
we will take our break then.